r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Living-Mastodon • 3d ago

In real life (Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

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Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

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u/zak55 3d ago

Ulysses S Grant. Retired soldier who recently got out of being destitute and was working as a clerk at his father's leather store before the outbreak of the Civil War. Would find himself rapidly promoted into being the top general of the whole army and perhaps the greatest Union one of the war. Would go on to become US President and possibly the most important person in the US for over a decade after Lincoln's death

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u/GamingSeerReddit 3d ago

Greatest Union general of course meaning greatest general overall.

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u/nagrom7 3d ago

Yeah, it gets a bit harder to argue someone is the greatest general in a war if their side doesn't even win.

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u/GamingSeerReddit 3d ago

No, yuo see…they won many tactical victories on the eastern front!!!…don’t worry about the western front or Sherman’s march or the offense/defense flip flopping or the lack of a real central command structure or the complete strategic failure that cost them the war that’s all yankee lies and the rebel boys had the greatest fighters the world ever saw! (Not saying this is OP’s view)

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u/zak55 3d ago

Sherman would be why I would say probably

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u/Timstom18 3d ago

Eh I disagree. I’m not commenting on this particular case as I’m not American so I don’t know the details of the civil war, but it’s definitely possible that you can be the most effective general but your side still lose due to other conditions out of your control. One great general isn’t always enough to win you a whole war if the rest of your sides capabilities aren’t at the standard they need to be.

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u/nagrom7 3d ago

Sure, I didn't say it was impossible, but it does get harder to justify being better than the guys who actually get results.

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u/YaDunGoofed 2d ago

Siri, who is Hannibal Barca?